The Difference Between Marketing Plan and Marketing Strategy

Many people especially scholars think that the marketing plan and marketing strategy are the same. No, they are not the same. Here we are going to explain the difference between a marketing plan and marketing strategy.

Marketing Plan refers a way you achieve your marketing goals. It is the implementation of your strategy as well as the roadmap that will guide you from one point to another. It’s different to a marketing strategy. In which a marketing plan is the matter of “how” you aregoing to do to achieve your marketing goals.

Meanwhile, Marketing Strategy refers to an explicationi of necessary goals to achieve all of your marketing efforts. This is a matter of “what” you are going to achieve. Your business goals shape your marketing strategy. So, your business goals and marketing strategy must go hand in hand.

The common problem in the business realm, most people try to achieve “how” without first knowing “what.” This can end up wasting resources for the company, both time and money.

When it comes to marketing, we must always recognize “what” and then explore “how”. A strategy is thought, while a plan is an action. Here is an example of how both strategy and plan work together:

Objectives: To gain wider market adoption.

Marketing Strategy: Introduce to a new market segment.

Marketing plan: develop a marketing campaign, identify, and focus on a particular segment.

The success formula that can be used to better explain how important the marketing strategy and marketing plan looks like the following:

Marketing strategy → marketing plan → Implementation = Success

Your marketing strategy consists of:

“What to do.

Inform the customers about the product or service you offer.

Inform the consumers the difference between your product or service to the others.

Your marketing plan consists of:

“How” to do it. So, create a marketing and promotion campaign that will achieve “what” is within your strategy.

If you are preparing a marketing strategy and a marketing plan to get into your business plan, here are the key components you should include in each of the sections:

1. The Components of Your Marketing Strategy:

The External of Marketing Message

Setting the Goals

Short Term Objectives and Goals

Long Term Objectives and Goals

2. Your Challenge

Describe briefly the product or service that you are going top market and the goal notes which are identified in your marketing strategy.

3. Situation Analysis

The situation analysys should identify the following:

Target

Focus

Culture

Power

Weakness

Market share

4. Competitor Analysis

What is the position of your marketing ? What is the position of the market of your competitors? What are the values that drive them? What is your weakness? What market share are you pursuing? What market share has your competitors been working on?

5. Identify Your 4P (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion)

In here, you are going to define how you will use the 4P (marketing mix) information to achieve your marketing strategy objectives.

As you can see, your marketing strategy goes hand in hand with your marketing plan. Without both of them, you are not just wasting resources, but you can also get stuck and end up with no idea and where your should go.

Finally, another important thing here is never ignore to measure any marketing campaign that you are engaging in order to see what works and what does not. You can use this information to guide your marketing activities in the future.

The Difference Between Marketing Plan and Marketing Strategy was last modified: July 22nd, 2017 by